Tech news

[JDR13]

Don't know if this is the right thread, but Anandtech is closing down:

End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell

www.anandtech.com

They will keep the web page and the forums alive, but nothing new will be published.

Oh wow.. seeing that brings back a lot of memories. I haven't visited Anandtech in years, but it was one of my go-to sites in the early to mid 2000s whenever I needed tech help or wanted to see the latest hardware reviews. Sad to hear they're shutting down.

 

[notdart]

Ex-Microsoft engineer resurrects PDP-11 from junkyard parts

Because everyone has a box of mystery computer bits they simply can't part with

www.theregister.com

What a waste; i used a pdp-11 once; it wasn't my favorite; i prefer the pdp-10 (despite the similar name was very different - both built by DEC); i guess the pdp-11 (at least the samll model) had the advantage of not requiring a specially conditioned room the size of large gym; but beyond that i didn't care much for it. 'Side the uni made us buy our own floppy to save our work....

It was slightly (well a lot) cleaner than the 8086 but not as nice as an 6068 with regards to instruction set. Of course you couldn't do much with an 6068 even back then but it had a clean instruction. Sort like IBM going with the 8088 apple ii made us all cry by using a 6502 when there were nicer chips available at the time. Curse of large corporation (even if apple wasn't large back then but obviously they were planning ahead to curse us).

 

[SveNitoR]

Oh wow.. seeing that brings back a lot of memories. I haven't visited Anandtech in years, but it was one of my go-to sites in the early to mid 2000s whenever I needed tech help or wanted to see the latest hardware reviews. Sad to hear they're shutting down.

Yeah it's sad, but not surprising. I've kept reading some of their articles (like case reviews and psu reviews), but the amount of articles became less and less as time went on.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

History : I found this article via the Ontrack blog : How computer shops looked like in the 70s and 80s : https://uk.pcmag.com/news/141469/inside-computer-stores-of-the-1970s-and-1980s

 

[JDR13]

History : I found this article via the Ontrack blog : How computer shops looked like in the 70s and 80s : https://uk.pcmag.com/news/141469/inside-computer-stores-of-the-1970s-and-1980s

Pretty cool. There used to be a Radio Shack next to the grocery store my parents shopped at when I was a kid. I'd run over there and play games like Thexder or whatever they had on display at the time.

 

[Alrik Fassbauer]

I recently re-discovered at home books about Shareware - I mean, *printed* books ! - and shareware catalogue diskettes ...

 

[pibbuR]

Just what we needed:

Clippy resurrected as AI assistant — project turns infamous Microsoft mascot into LLM interface

Everyone’s favorite old paperclip is back in action — in a manner of speaking.

www.tomshardware.com

I always thought that the physical thingi8 was a Norwegian invention. But here's what Wikipedia has to say about it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_clip):

"Norwegian Johan Vaaler (1866–1910) has been identified as the inventor of the paper clip. He was granted patents in Germany[21] and in the United States[22] (1901) for a paper clip of similar design, but less functional and practical. Because it was more complicated to insert into the paper, Vaaler probably did not know that a better product was already on the market, although not yet in Norway. His version was never manufactured and never marketed because the superior Gem was already available.

Long after Vaaler's death, his countrymen created a national myth based on the false assumption that the paper clip was invented by an unrecognized Norwegian genius. Norwegian dictionaries since the 1950s have mentioned Vaaler as the inventor of the paper clip,[23] and that myth later found its way into international dictionaries and much of the international literature on paper clips."

Wearing paper clips was used as a sign of opposition to the German occupation of Norway during WW2. Apparently this practice was also not invented here, but came from the French.

pibbuR who still has paper clips, but no longer remembers where.

PS. The Norwegian word for paper clip is "binders".

 

[pibbuR]

The Windows Subsystem for Linux is now open source

Today we’re very excited to announce the open-source release of the Windows Subsystem for Linux. This is the result of a multiyear effort to prepare for this, and a great closure to the first ever issue raised on the Microsoft/WSL repo:

blogs.windows.com

 

[pibbuR]

Polish engineer creates postage stamp-sized 1980s Atari computer

Hobby project shrinks 1980s computer platform that pierced the Iron Curtain.

arstechnica.com

pibbuR who wonders if it can play Doom.

 

[JDR13]

pibbuR who wonders if it can play Doom.

If it can't now, someone will find a way to make it.

 

[pibbuR]

IBM now describing its first error-resistant quantum compute system

Company is moving past focus on qubits, shifting to functional compute units.

arstechnica.com

As you can see, it isn't exactly a laptop. It probably won't be cheap, but planned release date is some time during 2029, so you should have plenty of time to save some money (especially if you skip all those rtx xx90's).

pibbuR who won't buy it unless it can play Doom.